who killed theresa?

Je dois dire que je suis impressionné. J’ai fait exactement ce qu’il a dit qu’il ferait, et en peu de temps. Et je suis d’accord, le Bloc a été rien d’autre qu’une mouche politique: Pas d’idées, pas de route pour sortir de ce pétrin. Bravo:

la Loi sur le système correctionnel et la mise en liberté sous condition

• Merci.

Translation of Pierre Hugues Boisvenu’s press conference this morning on the Conservative agenda for crime and crime victims. I must say I am impressed. I has done exactly what he said he would do, and in short time. And I agree, the Bloc has been nothing but a political gadfly: No ideas, no road to lead us out of this mess. Bravo:

• Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for coming.

• I would like to especially thank the invited guests for their presence and their support in this announcement.

• In the present system the criminals get a break in early parole through the review process. To explain,

• Criminals who have committed  non violent crimes may get parole after serving  sixth of their sentence, and parole  after the third of their sentence. Therefore, a thief, a drug dealer, or someone who commits fraud is likely to be met by a victim on the street sooner, much sooner. This situation frustrates judges and police officers working hard to remove these criminals from circulation.

• The public wants change and that is what our Government is committed to.

• The legislation would also ensure that the courts intend to force these criminals to repair the harm caused to their victims. The possible imposition of penalties tougher for these criminals is only part of the solution.

• Victims should be heard, in particular, in the correctional process. The bill presented today will allow victims to have a voice.  For example, the  right to participate in the VAC Board Hearings and to make statements will be enshrined in this Act;  Victims will have access to information on the temporary absence with escort and transfer of offenders;  Victims may obtain information on the participation of an offender in rehabilitation programs;  Victims will know if an offender has been found guilty of serious breaches of discipline in a correctional institution.

Finally, as requested by the AFPAD, we announce creation of a National Advisory Committee on matters relating to victims, which will be co-chaired by the Ministers of Public Safety and Justice Canada.

• We can reaffirm that no other  Government has gone so far in recognizing the primary rights of Victims Of Crime over the rights of  criminals.

Some of you know Mary Diwell as the opinionated voice on the Russell Williams’ posts. While others were inclined to play super-sleuths, Mary has been quite critical of the “looky loo” mentality; expressing that we should all wake up and get a life.

I struck up a friendship with Mary because I saw the merit in her argument. While biding my time here at WKT? I often post about other cases, and I often get caught up in them. But like Mary, I really believe that this is a warped obsession. In passing a car crush it is oftentimes hard to avert our eyes, but lest we gaze too long it is always good to heed the words of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche:

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

I do not wish to be a hypocrite. I have many times watched “Unsolved Mysteries”, CSI. and any number of Discovery Channel forensic dissections that are lurid and fascinating. But I would emphasize that all my car-crash gawking came LONG BEFORE I had an inkling that my sister was a victim of murder. When that horrific reality took hold I abandoned television altogether, and became addicted to facts. To anyone who derives pleasure from unsolved crimes, a word of caution: unless you have been touched with such tragedy, go back to enjoying your lives… you have no business here.

As you might have now guessed, I have invited Mary Diwell to post some comments here about our public obsession with horror, tragedy and violence. Here is her piece. Thank you Mary:

“The recent arrest of Colonel Russell Williams on sexually motivated murder charges brings to mind the notion of those who derive pleasure from the misfortunes of others. In this case, a voracious media and ignorant on-line commentators have had a field day.

Surely this is a human tragedy for all concerned – firstly for the victims and their families but also for the colonel and his family particularly his wife. However, what do we see? A media attributing every rape and murder in Canada to the colonel and a public baying for the blood of both them. Particularly disturbing to me is the fury over the defence of property transfers in order to financially protect Ms. Harriman. Woman who probably call themselves feminists are baying for this woman’s blood – supposedly in support of the women who were the colonel’s victims.

We all should be silent in pity for those who are victims of violent crime. The pain of their families can only be imagined by those of us who have no experience of such horror and special concern should be for the families for whom there is no closure because the killer has never been found. The anguish is there forever.

And then there is the hypocrisy in the case of Colonel Williams. The media was ever so quiet and respectful when the bodies of three teenage girls and an older woman were pulled from the Rideau Canal last summer – murdered by their own family. Political correctness demanded a muted response to such barbarism because it was a “cultural” matter. The colonel and his wife have no such excuse. Its been open season on them.

The sometimes tragedy of the human condition should be considered by all those who pass judgement on others and a humble respect given in its place.”

GQ story on alleged serial killings splits opinions
By Brie Handgraaf
Rocky Mount Telegram

The people interviewed for a recent national story on Rocky Mount’s alleged serial killer case are divided on the published product.

Jackie Wiggins, mother of victim Jackie Nikelia ‘Nikki’ Thorpe, spoke with the author of the article in June’s issue of “Gentleman’s Quarterly” last fall and said she has mixed opinions about how it turned out.

“I was pleased with it as far as the publication about the girls and stuff, but his interview with this cabbie person was kind of shocking to me,” she said. “He came out with a whole lot of information that could have been useful earlier (in the investigation).”

She said she is reserving judgment on some of the quotes from officials used in the article.
“I think they said some things that now I hope they regret,” she said. “I guess the reporter reported as he heard it, but I’m waiting to hear their version of it.”

Rocky Mount Mayor David Combs was negatively portrayed in the article. Combs said the author took him out of context.

“Most people assume the mayor knows everything that is going on, but I’m not always aware of what the police department is working on,” he said. “He also made a comment about how I wasn’t at the candlelight vigil, but I really didn’t know about it. Nobody called me so I never knew about it.”

He added the article was skewed to overplay the race issue.

“I’m not sure I realized the direction he was going with it,” he said. “He wanted to paint a picture between Edgecombe and Nash counties, but I think, overall, that as a mayor, I look at it as all one city. I think because he is writing a book on race in the South, the whole article was based on race more than anything.”

Wiggins said she also believes the focus on race was dramatized.

“When he talked about the train tracks diving the blacks and whites, I think it could have been worded better,” she said. “I guess that was just his way of getting the point across, but our schools are integrated. I feel like some things were stretched.”

Rocky Mount councilman and local NAACP president Andre Knight said race does play into how much media attention, or lack thereof, the case has gotten.

“I think (the author) used race as a backdrop,” he said. “I think when it comes to African-American women and children (as victims of crime), they don’t get near the coverage other nationalities get in the media.”

Knight and Wiggins commended the author for his portrayal of the girls — not just how they died, but how they lived as well.

“He gave the women a real face. He talked about not just their addictions, but how these women were actually engaged in society. They were good people,” Knight said. “He was trying to actually put a face other than a mugshot on these women. I think he gave them some dignity as well.”

Wiggins actually was pleased with the relatively graphic portrayal of the victims’ deaths in the article.

“He was printing that to make people see just how tragic and demeaning the bodies were left,” she said. “He described what it was like. He put it like it was. I think the readers can see what we saw and how we felt.”

Knight said he hopes the national media attention will help the investigation.
“This case hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention as it needs,” he said. “We don’t need this to go by the wayside. It is still very important to the families and the community.”
Combs said the attention will likely taper off.

“Other communities have had similar things happen and I hate to say this, but soon the national media moves on to something new,” he said. “Hopefully, someone will see this in the media and come forward with new information.

“I just hope people take it for what it is. It is a magazine article by someone trying to write a book.

“He took a lot of liberty along the way. It is what it is.”

GQ’s a day late and a dollar short on this one. (well, 9 months at least to be precise)

What you will: They certainly know how to package a story:

The elderly black woman sits on her couch and rummages through a cardboard box until she finds the newspaper article—raggedy and faded like the town of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where her daughter Melody spent her final years. The headline reads, POLICE SEEK MORE CLUES IN MURDER.

“That’s what Melody’s son used to ask me all the time,” says the woman. Her weary voice assumes the pitch of a little boy: ” ‘Grandma, have they found out who did it to my mama?’”

And then she mimics a grandmother’s loving cadence: “I’d say, ‘Not yet. But the Lord knows who did it.’”

She falls silent. Then the woman points to a large photograph propped against the wall of her modest home. Below her grandson’s name and grinning face are the dates “October 15, 1997-November 15, 2008.” A tornado had engulfed their house that November night while she and her husband and her murdered daughter Melody’s son were all asleep. She remembers how the astonishing white light made her gasp, “Jesus…” Then she remembers her grandson flying away from her, as her daughter had three years earlier.

“Now he’s up there with her,” the grandmother murmurs as she looks down at the newspaper clipping on her lap. “Now he knows, too.”

The farmer who discovered the second body found off Seven Bridges Road, a few miles north of Rocky Mount, had been taking down his electric fence, and what drew him to the tree stump was a foreign odor. He initially mistook the carcass in the woods for that of a rotting deer. But then he saw the hands raised above the small round skull, as if waving for help. The skeletonized woman lay facedown, naked. Maggots and beetles dug into what was left of her leathery flesh.

When Corneta Battle saw the news that day in March 2008, she knew that her prayers—Lord, you’ve got to show me where my sister is. Let me dream it. Let me see it—had finally been answered. Corneta called the authorities. They asked her to swab her mother’s mouth for DNA. After the tests came back indicating a 99.9 percent probability of kinship, the police showed Corneta the photographs taken out at Seven Bridges Road. Corneta Battle looked at them and nodded silently. Though there was almost nothing left of her sister, she still recognized Ernestine.

For almost six weeks, Ernestine Battle had been missing. It was well known that she walked the streets of Rocky Mount all night, selling her body to support her crack habit, that she had stopped taking care of her two young children, that she had been in and out of jail for the past nine years on drug- and prostitution-related charges, that when her family gave her food, she would trade it on the streets for a rock of cocaine. Her disappearance was nonetheless alarming for two reasons. The first was that Ernestine, no matter how strung out, always managed to stay in touch with her family. The second was that in the past five years, several other African-American women who wandered the streets of Rocky Mount at night had never been seen alive again.

Among the disappeared, Ernestine had known Nikki Thorpe best. Nikki lived down the street from her. And on her way to the park to score some drugs, Ernestine would wave to Nikki’s mother sitting on the porch drinking a Pepsi and call out, “Hey, Miss Jackie! Nikki there?” Or “C’mon, Miss Jackie, I know you’ve got another cold Pepsi.” As with Ernestine—who once had a respectable job with the cable company and took pains to do herself up, almost like a fashion model—there had been something to Nikki before all this. Nikki grew up playing football with the boys in the projects on Stokes Street. She’d been a cheerleader in high school. She wrote poetry and spent entire evenings at the O 64 Bingo Parlor. Nikki’s talent for braiding hair was highly regarded by the crack dealers, who sometimes gave her a rock in exchange for a hair job instead of a blow job.

Then, in the summer of 2007, Nikki’s became the first body left to rot away alongside Seven Bridges Road. So little remained of her, or of Ernestine the following year, that the pathologists who examined the corpses could not determine a cause of death. All that could be said with certainty was that the Rocky Mount women had died far from home—like Denise Williams, whose bloated body was discovered floating in a swamp southeast of town in 2003; like Melody Wiggins, found in the woods in May 2005; and perhaps like Christine Boone and Joyce Renee Durham, who in 2006 and 2007, respectively, simply vanished from the streets.

Someone was apparently taking drug-addicted black women from the drab streets of Rocky Mount—women who were not well connected or captivating to the media—and ending their sad lives and gambling that it would not matter.

Six years running, someone’s bet was paying off.

The cabbie believed that the someone was like him. Someone who knew the girls. Someone they would feel comfortable with. Let their guard down with. Jump in a car with, no problem.

He’d been driving these girls—Nikki, Ernestine, Denise, pretty much all of them—for years. Sometimes the cabbie (who asked not to be named) would drop them off at one of the grubby motels on Highway 301, where a john had bought them a room and where they’d turn tricks and smoke crack till checkout time. Then the cabbie would get a call on his cell and pick them up. In their state of dubious afterglow, he would see them strung out beyond comprehension, bruised and cut up, their clothes reeking from having been worn days in a row. Oftentimes they had no money despite their long evening of work, and the cabbie would give them a few bucks or drop them off at a church where they could get a hot meal.

Le plan Boisvenu

Yves Boisvert
La Presse

Publié le 08 juin 2010 à 05h00

Les conservateurs ne passent pas une semaine sans répéter qu’ils placent «les victimes avant les criminels». Chaque mesure touchant de près ou de loin à la sécurité publique est prise au nom de la protection des victimes.

Et franchement, ça semble fonctionner à merveille. Les partis de l’opposition à Ottawa sont de plus en timides dans leurs critiques, comme s’ils avaient peur d’être en déficit de sympathie pour les victimes d’actes criminels.

Depuis quand faut-il choisir un camp? Pourquoi serait-on incapable de protéger les victimes et de tenter de réhabiliter intelligemment les détenus?

Le nouveau sénateur Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu a utilisé la tactique à la première occasion, quand Gilles Duceppe a soulevé des questions fort légitimes sur la réforme du «pardon». «Nous, on pense aux victimes d’abord; le Bloc, lui, s’inquiète des criminels!» Il n’y a pas de limite, un coup parti. On pourrait les priver de soins de santé puisqu’on est du côté des victimes, non?

La semaine dernière, les conservateurs ont déposé un projet de loi pour faire en sorte que les prisonniers soient privés de leur pension de vieillesse pendant leur incarcération s’ils purgent une peine de 90 jours ou plus.

Réaction des partis de l’opposition? Ils sont tous «pour». En fait, ils sont pour dans les termes présentés le lundi 31 mai par la ministre Diane Finley – évidemment accompagnée du ministre officieux de la Sécurité publique pour le Québec, M. Boisvenu.

Voici comment on a posé le problème: peut-on accepter qu’un meurtrier en série comme Clifford Olson, qui a tué 11 enfants, reçoive une pension de vieillesse? Un journal a en effet révélé ce printemps que l’assassin recevait un chèque mensuel de plus de 1000$.

Déjà que la GRC lui a versé 100 000$ lors de son arrestation, en 1980, pour qu’il révèle l’emplacement des corps des victimes – 10 000$ par enfant, avait-on dit… On n’a pas besoin d’en rajouter pour achever d’écoeurer le contribuable.

Mais les 1000 prisonniers canadiens de plus de 65 ans (400 au fédéral) ne sont pas tous des meurtriers en série. Il est vrai qu’ils sont nourris, logés, mais certains peuvent être emprisonnés pour un, deux ou trois ans et être des soutiens de famille. On n’aidera aucune victime en privant cette famille d’un minimum. Ça vaut au moins la peine de soulever la question. Les pensions de vieillesse sont un programme universel, comme l’assurance maladie. Le gouvernement fédéral prévoit récupérer 2 millions par cette mesure et, si les provinces l’imitent, ces économies iraient potentiellement à 10 millions.

Les libéraux ont tout de même noté que, pendant ce temps, le gouvernement fédéral diminue les fonds qu’il verse aux groupes d’aide aux victimes.

Au-delà du cas particulier, on constate une sorte d’embarras grandissant de l’opposition à affronter le gouvernement conservateur sur ces délicates questions.

En ce sens, Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, ancien président d’un groupe de pression et d’aide aux familles des personnes assassinées ou disparues, est sans doute la meilleure recrue québécoise de ce gouvernement. Le symbole même du parti pris de ce gouvernement pour les victimes.

C’est aussi l’affirmation de cette stratégie racoleuse et efficace, qu’on pourrait appeler le «plan Boisvenu».

Les contradicteurs ont l’air de chercher de plus en plus péniblement les stratégies pour défendre les simples principes de réhabilitation et d’équilibre sans avoir l’air d’être «pour les criminels d’abord».

Ce n’est pas une mauvaise idée. Mais je n’aime pas Holland me dire comment les conservateurs sont “blowing smoke» aux victimes. Par expérience personnelle, c’est tout ce que les libéraux n’ont jamais pour les victimes quand elles étaient à la barre:

Ottawa – Liberals today called on the Harper government to put the $2-million savings from their bill to end old-age pensions for prisoners towards programs and services for victims of crime.

“The Harper government likes to trot out victims of crime for policy announcements or invoke their names when they rise in Question Period, but they are all talk and no action when it comes to making investments in programs and services that actually help them,” said Liberal Public Safety Critic Mark Holland.

Despite their claims of being the champions of crime victims, the truth is the Harper government has consistently undermined victims of crime.

They cut the budget of the Grants for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 41 percent and the Contributions for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 34 percent, or $2.7 million. The latter is money that would go directly to community groups and initiatives that help victims recover from trauma. In addition, they fired Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Steve Sullivan, and have left this vital position vacant.

Liberal Seniors and Pensions Critic Judy Sgro said the Conservatives have been politicizing the prisoner pensions bill by fallaciously telling people that the Liberal Party does not support it.

“We support the idea of preventing prisoners from receiving publicly-funded old age security benefits – but we also think the government should put the money where their mouths are and re-invest it in helping victims of crime,” she said. “Of course, given the Conservative track record in this regard, we don’t expect they will move to help victims of crime.”

Mr. Holland pointed out how the Conservatives have spent more than four years playing this hypocritical game with victims of crime.

“We do support the bill because we do not believe that the Canadian taxpayer should have to pay for offenders twice,” he said. “But we demand that the government do more than just blow smoke about victims – they need to take real action, and devoting the savings from this bill to programs and services that will truly help victims of crime would be a good first step.”

Ya know, This is not a bad idea. But I don’t like Holland telling me how the Conservatives are “blowing smoke” to victims. From personal experience, that is all the Liberals ever did for victims when they were at the helm:

Ottawa – Liberals today called on the Harper government to put the $2-million savings from their bill to end old-age pensions for prisoners towards programs and services for victims of crime.

“The Harper government likes to trot out victims of crime for policy announcements or invoke their names when they rise in Question Period, but they are all talk and no action when it comes to making investments in programs and services that actually help them,” said Liberal Public Safety Critic Mark Holland.

Despite their claims of being the champions of crime victims, the truth is the Harper government has consistently undermined victims of crime.

They cut the budget of the Grants for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 41 percent and the Contributions for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 34 percent, or $2.7 million. The latter is money that would go directly to community groups and initiatives that help victims recover from trauma. In addition, they fired Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Steve Sullivan, and have left this vital position vacant.

Liberal Seniors and Pensions Critic Judy Sgro said the Conservatives have been politicizing the prisoner pensions bill by fallaciously telling people that the Liberal Party does not support it.

“We support the idea of preventing prisoners from receiving publicly-funded old age security benefits – but we also think the government should put the money where their mouths are and re-invest it in helping victims of crime,” she said. “Of course, given the Conservative track record in this regard, we don’t expect they will move to help victims of crime.”

Mr. Holland pointed out how the Conservatives have spent more than four years playing this hypocritical game with victims of crime.

“We do support the bill because we do not believe that the Canadian taxpayer should have to pay for offenders twice,” he said. “But we demand that the government do more than just blow smoke about victims – they need to take real action, and devoting the savings from this bill to programs and services that will truly help victims of crime would be a good first step.”

Les Peacekeepers de Kahnawake, sur la rive-sud de Montréal, ont confirmé vendredi que les restes humains retrouvés plus tôt cette semaine dans un secteur boisé de la réserve mohawk sont ceux de Tiffany Morrison, une femme disparue depuis l’été 2006.

Mme Morrison avait 24 ans au moment de sa disparition. Son corps a été découvert lundi après-midi près d’une voie de service des routes 132/138.

Elle a pu être identifiée grâce à son dossier dentaire.

La cause du décès n’a pas encore été déterminée, précise un communiqué de presse du service des Peacekeepers de Kahnawake, soulignant que les enquêteurs mènent maintenant une enquête criminelle (plutôt qu’une enquête sur une personne manquante).

Mme Morrison, une Mohawk, est disparue en 2006 après avoir quitté un bar de LaSalle pour retourner à Kahnawake avec un homme de la communauté

Lack of media coverage indeed; I’d never heard of this case:

Human remains found in an aboriginal community south of Montreal on Tuesday have been identified as those of a woman missing since 2006.

The bones have been identified as those of Tiffany Morrison, 25, from the Kahnawake reserve, officials with the local police force confirmed on Friday.

The remains were found by a construction worker in a wooded area near the Mercier Bridge, which links Montreal to the South Shore region, said Warren White, an investigator with the Kahnawake Mohawk Peacekeepers.

The bones had been covered with some branches, White said.

Morrison was reportedly last seen in a taxi with a man on the Kahnawake reserve, southwest of Montreal, on June 18, 2006.

Morrison’s family had been critical of what it said was a lack of media coverage of her disappearance.